Soul in the Fire
by Inbetweentheraindrops
Summary: Semi-sequel to Malady, but can be read on its own. When life gives you lemons, don't forget to count them before they hatch... Or in other words, Artemis and Dick get thrust into another universe and struggle with finding themselves and the way back home. TRAUGHT. AU.


**Disclaimer applied! Also, all streets that I end up using are going to be either made up or taken from a bunch of different cities. I will use actual city names though, or at least try too.**

 **I didn't mean to start something new, but damn I can't get this idea out of my head. This could be classified as a continuation of 'Malady' but doesn't have to be.**

 **I really should be working on DTRH or ItDotN but you know plot bunnies have invaded my head.**

* * *

"What is that?" Artemis frowned, one arm tightened around Robin's waist as she pointed over his shoulder.

"That's our cue to change routes," Robin replied and flicked on the blinker of his bike, in his rearview mirror he sees Conner do the same and pulls off on the upcoming exit.

"It looked like an accident, the traffic would be completely backed up past this exit. I'm guessing we want to avoid that?" She rolled her eyes and wrapped her arm back around his waist.

"You have people out for your life, it'd be perfect picking if we got stuck in a traffic jam," Robin confirmed and came to a stop at a red light. He pressed a few buttons on his wrist computer as they waited to reconfigure a detour for the seventh time that night. They had a hotel reservation for tonight but the way things were going they weren't going to make it to that hotel. They weren't even close to the city the hotel was located in.

"What else is new? My night job runs the same risks." She shook her head, "Next question, how do you suppose that we get to the hotel?" She peered over his shoulder, "That route is going to add thirty minutes to our schedule, if we take Kingston and then left onto Arlington, that'd cut down twenty minutes. The only problem is-"

"There's only one way out of this city that heads to Richmond, or at least only one timely way." Robin shut down his wrist computer. "This light is taking forever."

"We might have been safer in traffic," Artemis grumbled as the light turned green once more. "In two blocks turn right down Kingston."

Robin accelerated and Artemis clung to his waist tighter, "I'm well aware 'Mis."

"I'm also perfectly fine with riding by myself, you know." She called over his shoulder as he hit the turn sharply. Her hands spasmed in his jacket. "Don't take the turns that sharp!" She barks.

All that earns her is a sharp bark of laughter and a burst of speed that has her pressed completely into his back, her fists are completely wrapped in his jacket lifting the hem higher and higher with each twist of her clenched fists.

He does have to slow down for the left turn because of the traffic, they pull to a stop at the intersection as the light goes red as the car in front of them is halfway turned into the other lane. "Is Conner still behind us?" He asks leaning back into her rigid embrace.

Artemis turns her head and catches Conner's reflection in the glass windows in the cafe that sits on the corner of the intersection. "Along with three other bikers, two cars, an SUV, and two trucks."

Robin leaned forward off of her and turns his head to see what she is seeing with a frown. "Those Bikers don't look familiar, do they?"

Artemis narrowed her eyes at the reflection and nearly squeals when Robin takes off on the green light. "No," she tucks her chin onto his shoulder, "If they've been following us, I haven't seen them before just now."

"Good." Robin swerved around a gray Camaro and Artemis choked on her gasp.

"Damn it, Robin!" She twisted her fists tighter in his jacket. "I'm starting to think that I might live longer if Conner is driving me."

"I'm not going to kill you," Robin calls back with a laugh as he swerves around a white Honda Civic. Artemis tucks her visor into his shoulder blade and presses into his back harder.

"Not on purpose, but I think my hearts going to give out before we get to the hotel." He laughs harder and accelerates through a yellow light. Artemis looks up and uses the rearview mirror. "Robin, you left Conner behind."

"I sent him the route we're taking, it'll be fine. He'll catch up to us on the freeway." He cuts in front of a black Ford Focus and hits the gas to accelerate around three cars and back into the right lane, he turns sharply into the on-ramp for the I-95 South.

Artemis twists her hands tighter into his jacket and can't really feel them anymore. "I'm going to die."

He laughs and cuts in front of a Semi-truck and into the third lane next to it and accelerates to seventy miles per hour.

* * *

"I can't feel my fingers." Artemis hissed attempting to untangle her sore hands from Robin's jacket. He laughed and carefully helped untangle her fingers.

"We should find a better way for you to hold on." He grinned at her cheekily and attempted to smooth out his extremely wrinkled jacket after freeing her hands.

She stuck her hands up above her head quickly. Robin blinked and raised his eyebrow. "If you put your numb hands above your head until the blood starts to flow again, you usually can avoid the pins and needles."

Robin shook his head and took the helmet off. He ran a hand through his hair. "Hey, look at that, we made it before it got dark." He smiled and pushed his shades up further on his nose.

Artemis yanked off her own helmet that caught the elastic in her hair and pulled the messily done up bun halfway out. "We made it with time to spare, considering the number of detours we had to take to get here in the first place." Artemis frowned at his smug look. "I am not going to condone your reckless driving, though." She handed him her helmet and dismounted. "Tomorrow, I'm driving."

"We'll see." Robin hopped off the seat with a smirk and unhooked their luggage from the compartment at the back end.

"I am driving tomorrow." She hissed and grabbed both of the bags. He stuck the helmets in after and locked the compartment back up.

* * *

"Took you long enough to catch up." Robin greets Conner at the door with a smirk.

Conner glared at him. "Next time, you're following me." He grunted and pushed past him into the shared room with two queens. Artemis sat on the closest one running a brush through her damp hair.

Artemis laughed, "I'm driving to Nashville tomorrow. Not Speedy Gonzolaz, he almost killed me."

"Didn't." Robin chirped and shut the door to their room.

"I have welts on my hands from your jacket." Artemis set down her brush and held up her hands, red welts covered her fists were the material had cut off her circulation almost an hour ago. "I had to hold on that tight to keep myself from dying."

Robin laughed and bounced onto her bed.

"Uh-uh, you're sharing with Conner." She pushed his body away from her with her foot on his hip.

Conner sat down on the empty bed with a sigh. Robin grabbed her ankle to keep himself from falling off the bed with a laugh.

* * *

"Hello, how are we doing today?" A perky brunette with ruby red lips smiled at them placing three menus on the table.

"I'm alive, I'd say that makes it a pretty good day." Artemis grinned picking up a menu.

The lady laughed, "That does seem to make a day that much better." She pulled out a notepad and a pen, "My name is Tana and I will be your waitress today, are there any drinks that I may get you started with?"

"Water sounds great." Robin picked up a menu and tossed the last menu towards Conner.

Artemis met Conner's eyes and rolled them, "How about waters all around?" She turned back to Tana with a smile.

"You make my job too easy." Tana winked and put her notepad away. "I'll be back with those waters in a bit." She turned and walked away from the table.

"Thanks," Artemis called out to Tana's retreating form.

"Should we really be eating out right now?" Robin demanded putting his menu down and rounding on Artemis with a frown.

Artemis sighed and put her menu down. "Look, whether you like it or not, we need to eat. We can not ride for hours on end without a little bit of a stretch or food." Artemis rubbed the side of her face. "I refuse to get on that motorcycle without a decent meal in my stomach. We've got a six-hour trip ahead of ourselves and that is only if we don't have to take detours because of traffic. We will be making a few pit stops." She glared at Robin and pointedly picked up her menu and flipped it open signaling the end of the conversation.

Robin let out a groan but picked his menu back up off the table and half-heartedly searched for something to eat.

Conner rolled his eyes and set his menu off to the side, his mind already made up. "Food sounds like a good plan."

"Thank you for agreeing with me." Artemis lowered her menu to shoot him a smile.

Tana chose that moment to make it back to the table balancing a small tray with three glasses of water and three napkins wrapped around pairs of silverware. "Here are your waters." She carefully placed one in front of each of them. The silverware followed quickly afterward. She tucked the tray under her arm and produced her notepad and pen once more. "Now, then, are we ready to order?"

"I am," Conner announced glancing at the two guilty looking people at his table.

"I'm torn, what sounds better, pancakes or eggs?" Artemis flattened the menu on the tabletop and turned beseeching eyes on Tana.

"Personally, I can't eat the pancakes here without half a gallon of milk, they are really sweet, fluffy, and absolutely the best pancakes I've ever had, but if sweet doesn't float your boat, I'd recommend the omelet. Just a word of warning, our omelets are to die for and will ruin any other omelet you will ever have."

"I've made up my mind." Artemis grinned and then turned to Robin, "What about you? Have you figured out what you'd like?"

"The Denver omelet with fluffy hash browns and wheat toast." Robin frowned at Artemis.

Artemis's eyebrows shot up, "Well, alrighty then. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Artemis turned to Tana with a small smile. "Please ignore his grumpiness. He is usually very polite but I think he fell out of bed this morning." Robin scoffed and tossed his menu at her head. She caught it easily and placed it on top of her own. "Anyways, I'll have the veggie omelet, could they add ham and sausage to that as well?"

"Of course." Tana smiled as she wrote down the orders.

"Can I have crispy hash browns and the apple cinnamon toast?" Tana nodded and then turned her face towards Conner.

"The Meat lovers omelet, and white toast."

"Is there anything else I can get for ya'll?" Tana asked politely with a kind smile.

"I think that's all." Artemis handed her the menus in front of her.

"Wonderful. I'll get these orders in just a moment." Tana picked up Conner's menu and left the table.

"Seriously, Rob, what the hell was that?" Artemis whipped around to glare at him.

He frowned at her. "We shouldn't be eating out. A quick trip through a drive-through would have been just fine."

Artemis sighed and glanced upwards, "We are perfectly fine right now and I'm pretty sure driving a motorcycle and eating take-out food would not go according to your plans."

Robin turned with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout.

* * *

"Do those bikers look familiar to you?" Robin asked as they came to a stop looking towards the bakery on their right.

Artemis leaned back in his rather loose hold of her waist to take a gander at them. "There's Conner." He rolls his eyes, "I've seen the one with the yellow stripes on the side, he was behind us on our left turn onto Arlington."

Robin frowned and tightened his hold on her, "Take the next right."

Artemis turned to face the road as the light turned green and sped around two white mini coopers, she flicked her blinker on and took a sharp right turn.

"Wait for two blocks then, take the next right." Robin instructed pulling up his wrist computer, "I'm letting Conner know what we are doing."

Artemis took a second to glance over her shoulder, "He's behind us." She warned before weaving around a Black Honda Fit, a blue Ford Focus, and a dark green Durango and hitting the right turn sharply.

"Now that's the way to drive." Robin praised shutting down his wrist computer. "Take the next right. If he follows again, we will know he is following us."

"Because we just did a circle." Artemis moved into the turning lane as the light turned red.

"Exactly." Robin agreed and turned his head to look at the windows of a restaurant. "He's still following."

"Right," Artemis muttered and pressed the accelerator to make it into the right turn between a white Toyota Camry, and a red Jetta. "Bring up a map for us to lose this guy and still make it to the exit in time."

"We might have to take a different exit and go a long way, otherwise he'll know what route we are taking," Robin muttered but brought up a digital map anyways. "Take the next right and then the immediate left."

Artemis hit the turn sharply and made it wide enough to jump into the left lane and took a second to let a yellow convertible speed through the yellow light before she floored it into the left turn.

"We're making another right in two streets. Then another immediate left, into a right then straight for three miles."

"We've got until that light turns green to lose him then." Artemis sped around three vehicles and a black and white motorcycle. "Don't be alarmed now, but I'm pretty sure we've passed that motorcycle three times already." She told Robin as she took the right turn and shotgunned it into the left turning lane.

Robin frowned, "We should be okay still." He looked over his shoulder not seeing that motorcycle. "It doesn't look like they are following us."

"Do you think there is any way someone could have guessed our route?" Artemis asked as the light turned green and turned wide into the right lane.

"There is always a possibility, but that possibility is extremely low," Robin said seriously. "Why do you ask that?"

"Because I've seen nine licenses plates that I recognize from Gotham already. They were in different places, but that can't be too much of a coincidence, can it?" Artemis took the sharp right turn.

"Where did you see those licenses plates?" Robin asked slightly alarmed.

"Right before we tried to see if that motorcycle was following us there were two." Artemis sped around a black Jeep Wrangler. "When we first got into town, there was one at the Mcdonalds parking lot. One was on the second right we took. Three were at that last stop light, and two were traveling towards us on the third right. Then we just past one." Artemis cut off a white Sudan and sped around three other vehicles.

Robin hummed and adjusted the digital map. "I don't think we need to worry about them."

"I just have a bad feeling," Artemis muttered and cut back into the right lane in front of a white Honda Civic.

"Take the next right and go straight for another two miles," Robin instructed before powering down the digital map. "Take the second highway entrance, it won't take us straight to Nashville, but won't take too much longer to get there."

"Sounds good. This town is giving me the creeps." Artemis carefully rounded the turn. She blinked and nearly swerved off the road. "Robin, that motorcycle is coming towards us."

"What? How?" He leaned over her shoulder to see the yellow striped motorcycle in the oncoming traffic.

"Hold on." Artemis hit the accelerator and took an incredibly sharp right turn that causes them to fishtail. Several cars around them honk their horns. Artemis pays them no attention and speeds down the straightaway going faster and faster every moment. Her vision tunneled and she weaved around a trailerless Semi nearly out into oncoming traffic, more horns blared at them as she tucks back into her lane just in front of a black Ford Focus.

"Artemis, stop!" Robin clung tightly to her waist, his voice nearly drowned out by the roar of the engine as she speeds up even more.

Artemis ignore him and dodges a black Toyota Camry by cutting off a yellow Convertable.

"Artemis!" Robin yells over blaring horns as she cuts into a right turn and into oncoming traffic.

* * *

 **Cliffhanger, don't hate me!**

 **I've got an idea of how this story is going. I have three chapters planned, though this one was supposed to include a few more scenes, unfortunately, they just didn't seem to fit in this first chapter. (Plus I love that cliffhanger).**

 **This is my entry for the 'Malady Challenge' I hope this sparks inspiration for others to join in and share the fun.**

 **Thank you for reading, please review and let me know your thoughts.**

 _ **Raindrops.**_


End file.
